Stoney Hedge Farm – Marion, OH

I am a very lucky girl! I have the privilege to be a friend of Judy Kilbury, the owner of Stoney Hedge Farm in Marion, OH.

First of all, Judy is a wonderful person: good hearted, wise, and fun to be around! She fell in love with alpacas and llamas about five years ago and I believe we met shortly after. We both love to knit; we share a passion that brings me to good people over and over again.

Judy started with only 3 animals after visiting the Delaware County Fair and today she has 18: 5 llamas and 13 alpacas. The llamas like to protect the alpacas. Both animals have wonderful fiber and Judy’s goal is to educate her customer about them.

Some great attributes of the fiber: 1. Fire retardant, one of the least flammable, difficult to ignite, slow spreading flames. It’s easy to extinguish, it beads like ash, and does not stick to your skin. 2. Absorbs moisture from skin and increases your comfort factor. 3. It’s lightweight, versatile, and is an all-weather fiber. 4. It’s great for spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, felting, insulation, batting, and many more uses. 5. It’s very fine and not itchy against the skin. Please visit www.stoneyhedgefarm.com for more information and products. She also carries blends of fiber like alpaca/hemp for example.

New cria

New Alpaca Cria

Last winter we were there to visit her and her animals for the first time, but needless to say it was freezing and we did not spend a lot of time outdoors. My students, my daughter, and I went back two weeks ago and it was delightful! The animals are lovable! Since then, 2 crias (babies) were born: one llama and one alpaca.

Aren’t they beautiful?

Right across the street from the farm you can spot the most lovely school house building you have ever seen! Judy’s father (who lived to be 104) and Judy have been students there. Her father also helped remodel the building and today it is used as a school! He use to sit outside the building before school started to answer any questions the students might had about the school in the past.

School House Building

I hope one day you can also visit Judy and her farm. Be prepared for a treat!

Black and White Alpaca

Wooster, Ohio May 23 2009

Every year we have fun visiting the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, OH. This year was no different: hot day, tons of yarn, beautiful animals and the lamb sandwich was better than ever!

I had to buy some yarn, of course, so I bought a blend of 50% alpaca, 50% merino, 3 ply from Ohio Valley Natural Fibers.  A gorgeous yarn that comes in hanks of 300 yards for only U$9.95/skein! I cannot wait to sit and knit with it! But I promise myself to finish a couple of things first…

Alpaca - male - expensive fleece

Angora Rabbits

Peonias

The Peonia flower is from my backyard. My husband bought me 3 plants last year for mothers day and they were in full bloom that weekend. I could not resist: my favorite flower!

Portugal – May 09

Praca do Comercio com Bonde

For a long time I wanted to go to Portugal! And I finally did it this past month!

Brazil was colonized by the portuguese from the 1500 to 1822: from them we inherited our language, architecture, food and so much more. As soon as I steped out of the airport in Lisbon I felt like I was home: familiar smells, features, sidewalks, people standing at their door watching the trafic and the day go by…

It was a business trip however: I did finish the research about the Portuguese Style of Knitting and the results and techniques I found there will be publish in my book that might carry the same title.

Suprisinly I did found many yarn shops, wool produced in Portugal, and knitters meeting in wireless cafes to have a good time knitting together! They rely mostly in oral patterns instead of written patterns like american knitters do even though Ravelry and the internet have been changing this tradition: they buy yarns and books and all the paraphernalia we have here through people they meet online!

I got to visit Lisbon, Cascais, Porto, Coimbra and Fatima. As everywhere in Europe, so much to visit and learn! These places are so rich in history and art! I got to visit the tombs and places that I have learned about it in my 4th grade history classes (back them I did not enjoy history and my teacher)!

Portugal is a small, the 7th most peaceful, safe and easy country to get around. Transportation includes electric trolleys, cabs, trains and buses and they are very reasonable. If you have a chance to visit Europe, I really recommend it!

A couple more pictures,

 

 

You will see much more later…

Class in Greencastle, IN – The Fiber Event

I had a wonderful time last week being in Indiana. First I got to visit with some friends, work on my website, my future book, meet some other friends. The day ended with a very good dinner and knitting!

Next day we all went to the Fiber Event in Greencastle, IN where I taugh a class. Great group! Some of my students already had my DVD or heard about The Portuguese Style of Knitting. They had no problem picking up the technique and I belive they will persue this style. One complain: the classroom was so cold!

After class I had a chance to shop for nice yarn locally produced and meet another friend during lunch! What a life! What else could I possibly wish for?

Class in Greencastle, IN - April 10/09

New England Final Chapter

Well! So many things happening in my life! Just wonderful! Knitting inspires my life and life inpires my knitting! No wonder days are flying by! Since my last post I have been in Canada for Mabee Corllet’s retreat and in San Diego for TNNA. Now I am actually writing from Seattle!

I really would like to finish my trip to New England now before telling you about any other, because I have so many pictures I want to share with you as well as the nice shops we visited at the end!

On Thursday I taught all day in the resort we were staying. I met wonderful knitters from the area and they really enjoyed learning this style of knitting! But when class was over we had time to go visit Patterworks, just 9 miles away. What a treat! I have bought some of their own yarn for a vest and bought some Lanaloft Sports weight from Brown Sheep in very bright colors (not like me at all)! They suggested a very good restaurant for dinner “The Canoe” just down the road. Another night free of dishes and house chores was left just for knitting!

 

 

 

Then we had Friday! The excitement of visiting WEBS and Green Mountain Sppinery! At Webs you will find any yarn you can think of plus their own line and in the back of the store they have a Sam’s Club of yarn. You buy bags of it for almost cost! And I found Noro! And Louisa Harding! My husband called me and I was so overhelmed with all I could knit, design, try, touch, that I could not speak! I had to apologize and call him later.

Here my friends  are at the door of Green Mountain Sppinery. Have you tried their

New England Trip – Chapter 3

 

 

 

 

Marta’s and mine favorite day was Wednesday! The day was just perfect: blue sky’s and crispy weather, all tones of oranges and browns and reds on the trees! We went to Harrisville to make it even more perfect! We got a tour of the mill and then we had lunch at the General Store. The food is always fresh and so tasty! After that we shopped at their local store and I bought what was left of the cashmere blend that they discontinued. Following Harrisville more shopping: we drove to Petersborough to visit a basket factory and then to Wilton to visit Deb Degan’s Yarn shop. What a day!

 

 

New England – Chapter 2

These sheep were in Washington, NH where we bought some of the local yarn.

 

Continuing with our adventure: next day, Tuesday, was the day we drove to Lowell, MA to visit Classic Elite. Some of us got really good deals there, some of us did not. After shopping we did go for a walk in downtown Lowell, a lovely area, and went out for lunch: Greek food! It was delicious! Portions were so big that we had leftover for next day!

 

 

 

 

At the end of a busy day we would go home, rent movies and knit to our hearts content!

This is the view we had from the living room:

 

New England – October 08: Chapter 1

 

I just love New England!After a month of my last trip to New Hampshire I went back! This time I took a group of knitter to visit yarn shops and woolen Mills all over. This trip was actually inspired by two friends of mine: Beth and Julie. They were most kind to share the trip and give me lots of hints of what to do/visit. So about a year ago I start telling my students about it. One of them, Deb, got really excited about the idea and offered a week of her time share in Lake Winnepesauke, NH to make this dream come true. Well, it was not hard at all to get people interested in going…and there we went!

Four of us from Columbus, OH started on a Sunday arriving in Boston Logan Airport. There we met the another knitter from Indiana. We drove to the first yarn shop: Yarns and Fiber Studio!

 

 

We had dinner in a lovely restaurant next door, in a house from the 1700’s. Food was delicious!

 

 

This picture shows my friends at the first stop we made at the Wool Tour in New Hampshire: The Fiber Studio. A nice shop with a good selection and also featuring local hand dyed yarn. The shopping began… Our next stop there were several local farmers that raise their animals, obtain their fiber, spin, dye and work with it in several ways.

 

 

We hit 4 of the 5 stops and in each one of them we saw beautiful yarns, animals, old houses, stories from spinners, knitters, crocheters, etc. So much inspiration and this was only the first day!

Heaven in Harrisville #2

OK! My previous post about Harrisville I could not upload all the pictures I wanted and my spell check button did not work (as you read it)! So now I want to enter more of the beautiful pictures I have to remember in the future and to share them with the world (I even got comments from Poland!)

Heaven in Harrisville,NH

 

 

I spent one week in Harrisville, NH: from September 14 to 20. Harrisville is heaven on Earth! The owners of Harrisville Designs, Pat and Chick Colony, make a great effort to keep the village as it was originally, early 1800s and they have succeeded! Intact architecture and rich history as Candace Eisner Strick mentions in her book “Sweaters from a New England Village”.

I feel funny about rediscovering knitting tips and techniques that other knitters felt in love over and over again along the years. But now I am going through the love and enthusiasm of rediscovering the mills in New England, especially Harrisville. To complete my passion, we all took a 5 day class from Donna Kay on Ethnic Folk Mittens. Donna’s passion, expertise and patience are beyond expectation and she is my Angel from my earthly haven.

We were 12 students sharing the hobby, the fun, and excitment  for 5 days. The pictures will show you a little of how much we have learned. Top all this with perfect Fall weather, good food, wine, friendship and knitting jokes and you will know why I came back home so light and relaxed, just like if I had spent big bucks in a spa for millionaires!